Chapter 34

Melissa

"Can I get a vodka soda with a slice of lime and two Coronas?" Janine asked, not looking up from her notepad.

"Sure thing," I responded brightly.

I grabbed two Coronas from the fridge and dropped them onto her tray. She still didn't look up, obviously consumed in whatever she had scribbled on it.

"So have you been working here long?" I asked.

Janine looked up and blinked. "Uh, yeah. A while."

"What's the crowd normally like?"

You would think I'd just asked her to come back to my place after work and look at my collection of severed heads. By the time she answered, I'd already begun filling the tumbler with soda water.

"Pretty standard, probably the kind of crowd you're used to." She shrugged and picked up her tray the second the last drink landed on it. "Thanks!"

I watched her trundle off and sighed. It was only my first day, true, but I had a feeling my notoriety as Donnie Beringer's ex-girlfriend and current girlfriend of the guy responsible for getting Donnie arrested would make the other townsfolk nervous around me for a while. Even though Donnie was the town's resident douchebag, many still rallied around him like the prodigal son when his time of need came, if only for the fact that his family had a lot of hands in a lot of pies. Not fingers, whole hands.

My new job was in a place called Virginia that was like a dressed up version of the Alibi, with dressed up prices too. Even so, it looked like the same kinds of people came to drink there. My question to Janine was more about trying to make small talk than it was trying to learn anything about the new place. Too bad she wasn't keen to talk.

I let my mind slip into silence as my shift ticked away, pouring drink after drink after drink and hoping that sometime soon everyone would stop looking at me like I belonged in a zoo.

I was so consumed in my work that I didn't even notice the familiar face who sat down across from me until I looked the man directly in the eye to ask him what he wanted to drink. The words died on my tongue.

"I was hoping to talk with you in private," said Graham Beringer, Donnie's father.

I swallowed hard and nodded. "Yeah, sure. We could go out back?"

I hadn't heard anything from Donnie's family since he was arrested a couple weeks previous and didn't expect to unless I was called to testify at his trial. The fact that the patriarch himself had come to speak with me made me incredibly nervous. Was he going to threaten me? Coerce me?

Graham and I walked out back together in silence. As the metal door slammed shut behind us, leaving us alone in the humid back alleyway together, I had to suppress a shard of panic working down my spine. Donnie’s father never approved of me and the little time I’d spent time with him had been nerve-wracking.

That being said, what could he do? Donnie had already tried his hardest to ruin my life and he failed. I was ready to take on whatever the biggest Beringer had in mind.

"I won't sit here and bullshit with you," Graham began, running a hand through his salt and pepper hair. It was graying with age, but I could see how he would have looked the spitting image of his son in his twenties. "My son has caused some trouble for you, trouble enough that you could sue the shit out of him if you wanted to."

The thought of suing Donnie hadn't occurred to me. Honestly, all I wanted was to put it all behind me and forget about it. I had Jack back and he was the only thing in my life that mattered now. Graham didn't need to know that, though.

"I would like to kindly ask that you refrain from taking any sort of recourse against him. I also believe that Donald won't be able to settle while you're around. Something about you and your relationship is like an obsession for him, and he simply won't drop it. So, I would like for you to leave Cannon forever and never contact my son again. The second request in particular is less a request and more a demand."

My eyebrows shot up. Who did he think he was? Just because he owned a lot of real estate in Cannon didn't mean he could eject citizens whenever he got the urge.

Graham read my expression before I could say anything and held up a hand to stop me. "I know. I am willing to offer compensation if you cede to my requests, but only if you do both and if your friend Jack agrees to do the same. If you leave Cannon and don't cause any more trouble for my family, I'm prepared to write you a check for thirty thousand dollars and call it a day."

Thirty thousand dollars? That was an insane amount of money. I could only imagine the kind of advice Graham had received from his fancy pants lawyer to come out with that kind of offer. I wondered how much I could take the Beringers for in court if that was the amount they were offering us to walk away.

"I'll think about it," I said.

Graham's eyebrows fell together and his mouth turned sour. "I need an answer now."

"Too bad," I replied. "I need to talk about your offer with Jack. I'll get back to you by tomorrow."

I took great satisfaction from denying him, especially since I bet I was the first person to do that in some time. Graham was desperate and it showed.

"Fine," he said finally. "But I expect to hear from you by nine AM sharp tomorrow. Understand?"

I nodded. "Completely. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Jack laughed. It was the last response I would have expected from the news.

"Don't you think it's at least a little funny?" he asked. "The great Graham Beringer had to come all the way down from his high horse to deal with this. Donnie must be in some pretty massive shit right now." He grinned. "I think it's reasonable to find that funny, after everything."

I chuckled. "You're right. I guess I was too focused on the very serious issue of deciding what we want to do. Thirty grand is a lot of money."

Jack shrugged. "That's up to you, sweetheart. He was your boyfriend. He was your abuser."

"Yours too," I pointed out. "Just in a different way."

We were cuddled up on the couch, my head resting against his side. I looked up at him with serious eyes.

"I don't want to be bought off."

"Then don't be."

I groaned. "But thirty grand..."

"We could go for more if we sue," he suggested. "I know this isn't about the money for you, though."

"It isn't about the money, you're right, but I don't know what it is about, you know? I don't know what I want from all this except outta here."

Jack nodded thoughtfully. "Either way, we're getting out of here. You just gotta decide whether you want to leave quietly or with a middle finger salute to everyone on the way out."

I smiled at the thought of me walking down Main Street with my middle fingers high in the air, laughing maniacally. The fantasy was nice, but in reality... I still just wanted to forget about all this. I wanted to start over somewhere new, start a family.

"Let's take the money." The words fell out of my mouth and I knew the second they did it was the right choice. "I just want to get out of here. If we take the money we can put a down payment down on a place and never look back."

Jack kissed the top of my head. "I think you're right, sweetheart. This is our chance."

Our chance.

The words resonated in my brain. Everything we'd been working toward, struggling for like moonwalking through quicksand, was finally clicking into place. And all it took was a little prison time and trauma. Go figure.